Islamic State claims responsibility for rockets fired at Israel from Sinai

The Islamic State terror group has claimed responsibility for firing two rockets from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula into southern Israel on Sunday night.

The Islamic State flag. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

“The fighters confronted Israeli jets that flew above the state and targeted the Eshkol compound with two Grad rockets,” the terror group said in a statement, without providing any evidence supporting its claim.

The IDF said no injuries or damage resulted from the rocket fire and that residents in Israel’s Eshkol region, located in the northwestern Negev, had reported hearing explosions earlier last week.

The incident comes as Islamic State is engaged in intense fighting with Egyptian security forces in the Sinai, where hundreds of government troops and policemen have been killed during the past several years.

In 2016 and the beginning of 2017, several rockets were launched at Israel from the Sinai by Salafi jihadists affiliated with Islamic State.

During President Donald Trump’s visit to Israel in May, a rocket was fired at the Jewish state from the Sinai. In April, a Grad rocket struck a greenhouse in Israel’s southern community of Yuval, adjacent to the Egyptian border. In February, the Salafi terrorists claimed responsibility for firing several rockets at Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat.

There is also growing concern regarding Islamic State’s increased targeting of Christians in Egypt, as numerous Coptic Christian families from the Sinai have been displaced following several major Islamic State terror attacks against that community in recent months.

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